1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the field of monitoring and alarm systems, and more particularly, the invention is directed to a display system which facilitates the display of status information which reflects the current status of multiple host based programs on a single display screen. The display system is called Multiple System Alert Monitor (MSAM).
2. Background of the Invention
Monitoring and alarm systems are required for a wide variety of applications ranging from simple mechanisms to rather complex processes. An example of a simple mechanism requiring a monitoring and alarm system would be a home heating system, and an example of a complex process also requiring a monitoring and alarm system would be a nuclear reactor.
Monitoring systems acquire information from a variety of sources. The information may come from sensors attached to devices measuring temperature and pressure, or they may come from another computer connected by a communications interface. An example of a monitoring system acquiring information from sensor information can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,588,987, to Stephens, issued May 13, 1986 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,471,348, to London et al., issued Sept. 11, 1984. These patents discuss techniques for acquiring sensor information from a plant environment, filtering the information and formatting it for display on a graphics display screen.
Monitoring systems for computer applications include the system described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,348,739, to Deaver et al., issued Sept. 7, 1982. The Deaver et al. system provides operator information on the characteristics of a data communication system. The information is displayed on a single terminal in the form of a table of summary information. The terminal is connected to the communication system and uses a handshaking protocol to obtain information. The information displayed is very important to the data processing staff because it provides management information for the communications network.
As monitoring capabilities evolved to more complex techniques, the ability to provide multiple virtual displays on a single display screen became necessary. An example of this type of processing is disclosed in the aforementioned patent to London et al. The system disclosed in the London et al. patent assigns each virtual display information for its own use. The information for each of the virtual displays is obtained and formatted for display on the separate sections of the display screen assigned to each of the virtual displays. With the advent of color displays, monitoring packages began to use color graphics to accentuate trends and alarm situations to assist the operator in determining where the problem occurred. An example of this approach is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,375,079, to Ricketts et al., issued Feb. 22, 1983. This patent describes the IBM 3279 color display and how it can be utilized to display color graphics. The color graphics include bar charts, pie charts and line graphs.
One system operation that can be monitored with this system is the IBM Customer Information Control System (CICS). This system manages a network of terminals and other communications devices attached to a host processor. A description of the operation of this system can be found in the Customer Information Control System/Virtual Storage (CICS/VS) General Information Manual, GC33-0155-1 published by International Business Machines Corporation. Due to the complexity of CICS, there are a number of monitoring programs that support the tuning and management of the system. The IBM Network Performance Monitor (NPM) aids network support personnel in managing the performance and growth of communications networks. A description of NPM can be found in the Network Performance Monitor General Information Manual, GH20-6539 published by International Business Machines Corporation. CICS Performance Analysis Reporting System (CICS/PARS) provides online display capabilities, system alert monitoring functions, problem determination aids and extensive batch reporting and analysis capabilities. A description of CICS/PARS can be found in CICS/OS/VS Performance Analysis Reporting System/MVS General Information System, GH20-6836-0 published by International Business Machines Corporation.
Today, with the proliferation of personal computers (PCs), systems are taking advantage of the user acceptance of PCs for performing functions locally to offload host processes. PCs are often attached to a host processor to monitor and collect information and to display the information on a locally attached graphics device and printer. An example of this approach is found in Sharman, "Multi-Thread Host Server For PC Support", IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, Vol. 28, No. 9, Feb. 1986. Sharman discloses a technique for using PCs in a CICS environment. The PCs are used as local file, print and message servicers. Rather than print a report on a remote host printer, each user employing the disclosed technique has the capability of locally printing a report, storing a host file and interacting with a CICS application.
Another pertinent example of such a monitoring application residing on a PC is discussed by Gallant, "Outspoken Micros Keep Support Center Humming", Computerworld, Apr. 8, 1985, at page 1, col. 1. Gallant's article discusses a PC based CICS monitoring system. The PCs are tied into four major on-line CICS applications that impact most of the company's 1200 employees. The PCs use a voice synthesizer to announce alerts while simultaneously calculating response times, maintaining history information and charting the results for tracking service.
The problem with even the most advanced of these systems is the inability to display information from multiple host applications on a single display screen. A significant amount of time is spent by the operator moving from one monitoring application to another trying to identify specific problems. The issue is further compounded when there are multiple copies of CICS running on a single processor.